Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989

The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was enacted by the Parliament of India to prevent atrocities and hate crimes against the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. In popular usage, including in parliamentary debates and in the judgements of the Supreme Court of India, this law is referred to as the SC/ST Act. It is also referred to as the 'Atrocities Act', POA, and PoA. Recognising the continuing gross indignities and offences against the scheduled castes and tribes, (defined as 'atrocities' in Section 3 of the Act) the Indian parliament enacted the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 when the existing legal provisions (such as the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and the Indian Penal Code, 1860) were found to be inadequate to check these caste and ethnicity based hate crimes. The Act was passed in Parliament of India on 11 September 1989 and notified on 30 January 1990.

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